I have finally finished watching this show. Despite my countless issues with it, it is a must see, mostly thanks to the excellent cast of colorful characters.
Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) has just been released from prison where she has spent the last seventeen years of her life, going down for a drug deal where the money was used to start her husband's record business. Now, Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) is her ex-husband, he's moved on, eventually getting engaged to Anika Calhoun (Grace Gealey).
Lucious, however, has his own problems. He's just been diagnosed with ALS and has less than three years to live. He needs to decide which one of his (and Cookie's) three sons will take over the family business. There's Andre (Trai Byers), the eldest, book smart, the CFO of the company. Next, Jamal (Jussie Smollett), the most talented, though Lucious will never admit it. Then, there's Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray), the spoiled youngest child and the one whom Lucious is personally grooming to take over.
Once Cookie is released, she takes over Jamal's career and wants him to take over the business. Unlike his father, she's never cared that he's homosexual while Lucious finds it appalling.
All three of Lucious's sons are disappointments: Andre married a white woman, Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday) and is bipolar, Jamal is gay and Hakeem is dating an older woman, Camilla (Naomi Campbell). Lucious sends Camilla away, almost forcing Hakeem to sign with the enemy label.
Judd Nelson plays Billy Baretti, the sworn enemy of Lucious. Lucious used to work with him, but now Baretti has the rights to many songs that Lucious wrote, which makes Anika's betrayal by working with Baretti all the more bitter. Perhaps she had good reasons. Though Lucious had proposed to her, forcing her doctor father to commit fraud, he nevertheless hooks up with Cookie and Anika catches them. Cookie tells on her because if Lucious's money disappears, then hers does too, and she never wants to back to being poor.
Jamal turns out a nasty act, nearly tossing Baretti over the edge of a building just to get the song rights back, despite his issues with his father, he's the most talented and helps Lucious write new songs, so Lucious decides that Jamal will take over, leaving the almost turned religious Andre and devastated Hakeem out in the cold. Cookie isn't pleased, she wanted him to leave the business to both Hakeem and Jamal, and is forced to work with Anika to get revenge on Lucious.
Now, ironically, perhaps, by the time the season is over, only Hakeem isn't a law breaker. Lucious murders his longtime friend and Cookie's cousin, Bunkie (Antoine McKay) because Bunkie wanted more money. Cookie almost smothers Lucious with a pillow, something only Jamal knows about. Jamal nearly tosses Baretti over the ledge and Andre gets into a fist fight with Vernon Turner (Malik Yoba), one of Lucious's right hand men and doesn't call the cops when Rhonda accidentally kills him. Rhonda also happens to be pregnant. I hope everything goes okay, considering she sure can drink. Also, the two have an open marriage, but now, they are bound forever.
The plot line that I had huge issues with was the one where Lucious forced Jamal to marry a back up singer, Olivia (Raven Symone) when he was eighteen, all the time while he was sleeping with her. Olivia is now in an abusive relationship and leaves her young daughter, Lola wiht Jamal, who slept with Olivia a grand total of once but he takes this new role of fatherhood seriously, only to have Lucious ruin everything. This plot line was sort of stupid. First of all, a DNA test is never performed. These are wealthy people, surely they would want that for sure, and a father forcing his son into a cover marriage, that's just barbaric. I hated the whole thing. I could have imagined a woman trying to pin a baby on Hakeem, that would have actually been believable. Whatever, it was only briefly, I don't think we'll see Olivia again.
Oh well. Still, this is a great show, with excellent guest stars, including Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson as a musical therapist, Timberland out does himself with the great songs, covering several genres effortlessly. The cinematography and editing are also great, each episode almost feels like a short film instead of a television show. The acting is the true stand-out, with the five main characters playing someone so complex. All five deserve Emmy nominations, too bad that almost certainly won't happen. Grade: A-
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